Many products in the chemical, pharmaceutical, food, nutritional supplement, cosmetic and related industries consist of viscous or highly viscous fluids or materials such as gels, emulsions, suspensions, pastes and the like. Such materials may be manufactured for use in end products such as gelatin used for capsules, lotions, cream, epoxy and other products.
During the manufacture of these materials, dissolved air and/or gas(es) may exist in and/or may be formed in the material in the form of small air pockets, micro bubbles and other voids which are not desirable in the end product. For example, gas bubbles present in such materials may impair the quality, appearance, flavor and/or aroma of the end product, may inhibit consistent filling or dosing of the product into a container and/or may undesirably promote aging and/or spoiling of the product.
In order to prepare such materials as an end product, systems and methods have been developed to de-aerate, degas or otherwise remove such air pockets, micro bubbles or other voids. Conventional processes and equipment for de-aerating such materials have operated by feeding the material into a vacuum chamber and onto a centrifuge plate rotating in the vacuum chamber. Through the centrifugal force imparted by the rotation of the plate, the material is directed radially outward, and air bubbles or other voids may be brought to the surface of the material, thereby exposing bubbles or voids to the vacuum environment. Under the vacuum action in the vessel created by a vacuum pump, exposed air bubbles or voids may stretch, burst and are removed by the vacuum.
However, conventional de-aeration or degassing systems and methods may not efficiently and effectively remove air bubbles and other voids from the material. For example, the amount of time the material remains on the rotating plate is often insufficient to bring all or substantially all of the air bubbles or voids to the surface of the film. Accordingly, many prior de-aeration systems and methods require longer processing times and larger diameter centrifuge plates. This increases manufacturing time and cost.
Furthermore, regardless of any increase in the time for the de-aeration process, many existing systems still do not effectively remove sufficient air bubbles or voids to ultimately provide a quality end product. For example, various existing systems do not form a thin layer of material to facilitate bringing air bubbles or voids to the surface where they may be exposed to and removed by the vacuum. Where material is simply directed radially outward but not sufficiently thinned, air bubbles and voids may not reach the surface and thus remain in the end product and degrade its quality.
Another drawback of existing systems relates to their difficulty to clean. For example, certain existing systems may rely on squeezing material through a gap with prior sufficient thinning of the material layer. These types of systems are difficult to clean.
Existing systems may also not be dynamically balanced so that as they rotate, they wobble. This may decrease degassing efficiency and also cause damage to, or shorten the life of, the system.
Existing systems may also be insufficiently sealed, especially near where a rotating shaft engages the stationary chamber. This may result in loss of vacuum, leaks, lower efficiency and increased maintenance costs.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved de-aeration or degassing system and method that more efficiently and effectively removes a greater amount of air bubbles or other voids from viscous or highly viscous liquids and other materials in a shorter amount of time than required by existing devices. There is also a need for a system that is easier to clean. There is also a need to provide higher quality end products for packaging and end use. The current invention addresses the foregoing and other drawbacks and issues associated with existing de-aeration devices.